A: Analysts say the court may overturn the Florida Supreme Court ruling that allowed handrecounts or possibly toss out the state’s election law as too vague. Either way, the hand counts would stop and George W. Bush would win.

Or the nation’s highest court might send the case back to Florida with orders to conduct a new recount based on a uniform standard, thus keeping Gore’s hopes alive.

No analyst is suggesting the high court will OK a resumption of the prior hand recounts using different standards in different places.

It’s also worth noting that when the U.S. Supreme Court first heard the case, it came up with a ruling that no one had predicted — vacating the Florida Supreme Court’s first ruling to allow hand recounts until the Florida court explained it better.

Q: If Gore loses before the U.S. Supreme Court, is the election over?

A: Just about everyone — including Democrats — agrees Gore is out of it unless the hand recounts can resume.

Q: What if Bush loses before the high court?

A: If the U.S. Supreme Court orders new hand recounts, it’s unclear who would win. That would depend on the standards. It seems very unlikely, for instance, that new standards would OK the Broward County approach of counting just about every ding and dent, which gave Gore 567 extra votes.

But in any case, the Republican-controlled Florida state legislature also has the option to step in — and it has begun the steps needed to pick Bush electors.

Q: Could the U.S. Supreme Court order new hand recounts to be conducted in time to meet today’s deadline for certifying electors?

A: To put it mildly, it would be tough. Gore allies admit their hopes for new hand recounts faded when the U.S. Supreme Court failed to rule right away yesterday.

On the other hand, Team Gore has always argued that the real deadline isn’t today but Dec. 18 when the presidential electors actually meet and vote. But the legal situation gets murkier if they aren’t certified by today.